Civic Responability

Are our civic responsibilities as important as our individual rights? In a politically liberal society no issue can be more important than what amount of attention should be devoted, to our duties as members of a society or our own individual rights and liberties. Each individual, their surrounding society and the government responsible for overseeing them must ask this question. Which of these spheres should be granted more devotion, the society or our own individual selves. Individualism became an issue when we as people began increasingly to demand more individual freedom and started to place more value on self-chosen individual achievement over mandated national achievement. Ever since these ideas were formed into governmental ideology, as John Locke first did, conceptions of individual and civil rights and duties have come into conflict in matters of public policy. They have not so much conflicted on the grounds of their incompatibility. More frequently they have caused disputes as to where the respective boundaries of each should lie, and/or which should be given greater respect by people and their governments. Before continuing I would like to state that this is not an important issue in all societies, rather it is an issue of liberal societies, almost always democratic ones. The issue as I address it in this paper is one based on ideas almost, but not completely, unique to the western world, Europe and the Americas. Here I will inspect the American perspective. Several issues arise whenever attempting to address the question at hand. The Most important the issue is that of rights and duties. What are rights and duties? Are they related? What are the different kinds of rights that exist in a Liberal society, which ones are more important, and who should be given these rights? What determines eligibility for receiving these various rights, how does this relate to the issue of equality? One must first address this topic before entering into any discussion of civil versus individual rights. Then one must ask, what is society’s role in securing my rights? What are my duties to society? This in turn brings up a discussion of societies purpose. One could ask what provoked man to first enter into a civil organization. In discussing any of the above-mentioned topics, the issue of morals plays a significant role. Whether one simply states that rights are based on moral principles, or that all decision making is somehow carried out using moral principles, it would be impossible to remove it from scope of the discussion at hand. Also important in deciding which sphere has greater importance, civil or individual, are self-interest and the degree to which they have influence over this decision. Are we motivated completely by self-interest, or is there another factor that facilitates our motivations? Is civil interest distinct form individual interest or does it exist only as a method of protecting individual interest. Further topics and phases may arise when discussing the question and its related issues. Those such as laws, citizenship, public good, and ethics may possibly appear in my discussion. I will in this paper, attempt to discuss the American ideological opinion on this question of civil versus individual rights and duties. In attempting to do this I will discuss the view of some of Americas more influential political theorist, as presented in their books, on the issues as they arise. My goal is to tackle as many of the issues above as possible, while making clear and concise a statement as possible. This is a very diverse issue and keeping the discussion simple will be my ultimate challenge. But I hope to conclude with my view while leaving you with a clear understanding of the case I have presented. What is a right? The nature of rights and what they entail, as well as some of their various forms is the discussion I will proceed with first. When discussing the American conception of rights I tend to favor the view presented by Thomas Paine. He believed that the rights of one man are the duties of another. In possessing a right someone else is required to respect that right, therefore there can be no rights without duties. In turn this would imply that we as people have a civil duty to respect the rights of others if we chose to possess those same rights ourselves. Madison and Hamilton would, I believe, say that our rights were endowed by a creator, as would Paine. They would say that they exist and are protected not so much by duties to others, but by being guaranteed by a social contract. In this respect we would assure our rights by carrying out our civil responsibilities. This is accomplished by respecting and adhering to the law. Even Calhoun admits that in exercising a right that we have certain obligations and that they must be adhered to when exercising a right.